Rain
by redex
Summary: KakaGai. Splitting the lightning bolt and teenage rivalry.


Gai only saw a momentary flash of sparkling, mismatched eyes after his and the other mask was torn away, but it was enough to make his heart feel like someone had shoved their arm down his throat and was trying to drag it out his mouth. Then he was being kissed, hard and fast, accompanied by a crescendo of needy groans and roughly tugging fingers in his hair. The serpentine length arched up against him and he was clenching down on it with a bruising force. It was an agony, to know how close he had been to never having this, and he was never, ever going to let go.

---

Nine hours earlier.

---

The desolate wasteland stretched before them, the lush trees having faded away a few hours ago to shrubs and rough grasses that cut in little stinging bites unprotected flesh. The five of them came to a standstill as the team leader made the tiniest of motions, silent as the breeze. 

It was not quite desert, but not quite home either. This barren, forsaken land was the purview of nomadic factions of fighting men who had lost everything including their way of life when the war ended. They weren't really much of a problem to anyone, so long as they stayed in these boarder areas. It was only now, when missing-nin took advantage of their disparate straits and offered to give them a place in the world, that they became a threat. 

The Hokage knew this. Thus the order had came down, and so the ANBU would act. 

Gai was barely sweating under his bear mask and regulation uniform, but he could sense the change in temperature. A warm, moist system was growing above them, and would most likely break in the evening. He knew the signs - they all did. It was crucial that shinobi knew the battlefield as well as they knew themselves. Just as much as they must know their enemy. It is the connection of the three that decides how long a shinobi will live.

Another motion was made and Gai's body moved almost on its own. Creeping through the shoulder-high grass, he snuck a glance to his opposite on the other wing. Kakashi was his senior in rank by three years, though they were the same age. He was catching up, but that was no comfort. He would always be second to this genius. 

Giving himself a mental shake out of this old revere, Gai forced himself to focus on the matter at hand. He would not beat his rival if he kept dwelling on the past. 

He was facing ahead once again, focused and tense with anticipation, when the man he had just been looking at glanced his way.

---

Six Hours Earlier.

---

If someone was watching from the outside, they might think that these five ninjas were somehow telepathic from the way were coordinated. That was the necessary illusion. The signals from the leader were silent, minuscule, and quick. They had been beaten into the heads of all the men with the knowledge that the tiniest flaw or miscommunication would result in death and worse until their bodies responded without conscious thought.

Such was the case now, as they faded into the background and shifted to an arrowhead formation. They would press in, to the center of the group where the enemy leader most likely was, and then the two wings would pincer in to help. Providing their cover wasn't blown, they would hit their mark and get out with minimum damage. 

Then the storm broke. 

Clouds that had been massing and rumbling ominously finally let go their burdens. It was as dark as midnight even though it was still afternoon. They were drenched within seconds, but that was not important. The fabric of their uniforms would help resist against lost heat, but other than that they could not waste the chakra or risk the sensing of heating jujistu. 

Flashes of lightning painted the scenery in stark black and white flashes, marring their night vision and hiding the tell-tale flickers of a hasty genjitsu. The rain dampened the scent of quickly-deadened fires, and the rolls of thunder disguised the sound of movement.

On the plains there is nowhere to hide.

---

Three hours earlier.

---

The relatively untrained soldiers went down quickly - a broken neck, a snapped femur, a smashed skull, a kunai, a sword. It was the missing-nin that were the problem. The genjitsu had been dispelled, but that had only revealed the extent of the problem. Two missing-nin from Cloud Country, scarred and battle-hardened, were enough to hold them up significantly. Especially considering their leader was dead, the first to be taken down when the trap was sprung. 

Gai finished the last man on his side and turned in his whirlwind of ceaseless motion. Two Leaf-marked bodies down - a cat and a monkey. The dog was keeping up with the flickering movements of his opponent, but unable to land a hit. Gai had already released the first gate, but as he ran forward through the ceaseless rain to help the crow attacking the second renegade he saw the blossom of blood appear and the body fall. 

The second gate opened and the strange numbness filled his body, eclipsing any exhaustion he might have felt before. His first blow was blocked, but as he methodically began to strike his opponent he could see each hit take a toll. Even as he analyzed the Lightning-nin's weaknesses from behind the stony mask, Gai reminded himself of the dangers of holding the Rest gate open in addition to the initial gate. He was unable to feel the affect of the added pressure on his body, making him unable to judge his own ability to fight. It almost made opening the third gate inevitable.

It became necessary when the opponent got in a strike and sent Gai reeling back long enough to create some distance between them. At the same time, a strangled cry echoed behind him. A quick glance reassured the Green Beast that his rival was not the one who had fallen. It was when he looked back - only milliseconds had passed - that he saw the hand symbols being formed. The third gate crashed open and Gai felt the grass around him push outward with the force of his chakra. The speed was heady as he sprinted forward in an attempt to intercept whatever this missing-nin had in the works, but was caught off guard and intercepted by a Kage Bunshin.

He struggled to move forward, striking again and again as he knew each second it took him to defeat this replica would be one second closer to death. This knowledge created a kind of peace on the battlefield - a simplicity that most ninja could not live without back in the real world. Kill or be killed. 

The bunshin vanished in a cloud of smoke, and as it faded away he saw the flash of chakra rising up into the clouds. 

He did not see it happen.

He could not move in time - pure energy moves faster than anyone.

All he could remember was hearing the sound of someone's voice calling his name. 

The lightning flashed down.

---

Two hours earlier.

---

Gai stumbled as they ran back to safety, mission accomplished and at a terrible price. The feeling of hopelessness as the air above him heated to a temperature many times that of the sun, separating raindrops as it flashed down to destroy him.

A silence, a peace. 

He saw the dog mask coming, and thought - too slow. But it wasn't. 

That was when Hatake Kakashi perfected the One Thousand Birds and split a bolt of lightning in half. 

It was up to Gai to make the final strike, splitting the enemy's throat almost casually as Kakashi collapsed to his knees, cradling his burnt hand.

Gai's body was threatening collapse at any moment as the gates all closed again one by one and their effects hit his body all at once. Wavering on his feet, he nevertheless found the strength to make it back to his partner and rival and help him to his feet. The skin was singed black from the intense combined heat of the chakra and lightning bolt. Two craters in the ground on either side smoked in the rain where the energy had been redirected.

All the words in the world passed between their eyes then, and a silent decision was made.

---

One hour earlier.

---

When they made it to the relative safety of the trees they collapsed together, Kakashi only taking a moment to wrap his injured hand in bandages before giving in.

---

Surprise registered on Kakashi's face as Gai pressed him back against a tree, but it did not last long. Gai's body was burning up despite the weather and he struggled to remove his breast-plate and shirt. Once he did Kakashi's hands only made the heat worse, pressing into perfectly toned and built muscles. They ended up collapsing down into the loamy earth, spreading a cloak in a fit of sensibility that quickly evaporated. An extra three sets of dog tags fell around Kakashi's neck as Gai looked down at him, and he nevertheless smiled for this sight - for winning.

He was a little embarrassed at his own eagerness until he felt Kakashi's pressing back, their bodies fitting together and making everything that separated them agony. Kakashi sucked on Gai's fingers as he got his pants off and marveled at the erection so pointedly aimed at him. He knew how this worked, but had never had these emotions attached to it. 

Pushing his fingers in, he held Kakashi's body down possessively, pushing and spreading and drawing out as many moans as humanly possible. His body protested, and he ignored its weakness. The rain dripping down between leaves cooled his skin, but could do nothing for the burning inside. 

Kakashi gasped against Gai's shoulder as he entered, and then tossed his head in an attempt to choke back a scream. He couldn't stop, couldn't wait as he took this body for his own. He had almost died, and Kakashi had saved him. And now they were crying for each other even as they fucked, lips fumbling together in the rhythm of their bodies. 

Groaning, Gai stretched already pulled muscles and lifted Kakashi's hips to fuck him a little harder. He couldn't believe how perfect this was, how he had even thought he could live without it. Could live without long, pale legs marred by fertile dirt pressing against his arms as he lifted them out of the way; could live without demanding hands pulling at his shoulders; could live without red and blue eyes tearing in the rain as come spilled between them and enriched the earth.

Gai rode Kakashi's shudders of pleasure as that hot, tight, entrance caught at him and made him choke and spill over. It was too much, too much to think about. Kakashi and he...

---

Four hours later.

---

They fell asleep in a makeshift shelter after sending one of Kakashi's dogs with a mission report. The rain petered out during their nap and the soft cry of a messenger eagle awoke them, wrapped around each other, after only a few hours. 

The bird flew off again with the three spare dog tags and the headbands of the two mercenaries. 

They made their way back to Konoha safely, stepping into the town unnoticed, just like anyone else.

Gai went with Kakashi to the Mission room even though he really didn't have to, and waited with him as he had his hand seen to. By the time they were leaving the hallways were already buzzing with the news of what had happened. It made a better story than an experience; already it was eclipsed in Gai's memory by the event that had happened afterwards.

The bright afternoon sun blinded him for a moment and he shaded his eyes with a hand to see the figures of powerful men gone by carved into a cliff. Their shoulders bumped together and a small, contented smile echoed a booming laugh as they passed down the street. 

They were seventeen and this would be their life. 


End file.
